


Mom's Favorite

by CaptainLlewellyn



Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: Della is only mentioned, Family Issues, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Louie Duck Needs a Hug, Sibling Arguments, Sibling Rivalry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-22
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-12 20:27:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29640207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainLlewellyn/pseuds/CaptainLlewellyn
Summary: Dewey and Huey argue over who Della's favorite child is. They become concerned when Louie doesn't argue his case. He believes he's her least favorite and that she doesn't even like him at all. His brothers comfort him and try to get him to believe otherwise.
Relationships: Della Duck & Dewey Duck & Huey Duck, Della Duck & Louie Duck, Dewey Duck & Huey Duck & Louie Duck
Comments: 11
Kudos: 96





	Mom's Favorite

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't written fanfic in years, so bare with me. I have so many ideas, and I wanted to start off with a simple one-shot, so here you go.

The boys often competed over every little thing, like who was Uncle Scrooge’s favorite nephew. Even if it was a joke just to mess with their brothers, they would come up with arguments to state why they were the favorite. It almost always started with Dewey.

Only today, he switched it up. He didn’t renew the argument of who was the favorite great nephew. No. Today, he was thinking of someone else.

It was a relatively slow day. They’d gotten back from a tiring adventure the night before, and today was being used as a break. The three of them sat in their room, each doing their own thing. Huey was sitting on the floor, cheerfully researching something on his laptop. Louie was on his bed, leaning back against the wall and looking very tired as he scrolled aimlessly on his phone. Dewey was laying on his back on Louie’s bed, hanging upside down over the side, bored out of his mind.

It was quiet, even peaceful, up until Dewey blurted out, “Who do you think is Mom’s favorite?”

Louie flinched at the question, but it went unnoticed by his brothers. 

Huey looked up from his laptop, sending an unimpressed look toward the middle child. “I’m trying to work, Dewey. Don’t start,” he said, sounding like he’d been expecting Dewey to speak up at some point but was still annoyed that he’d done so. He never liked being interrupted when he was in the zone while researching something. That, and he didn’t like the fact that Dewey implied that their mom even  _ had _ a favorite.

“I bet it’s me,” Dewey continued cheerfully, completely ignoring his older brother’s reluctance to take part in this argument. He knew his brothers would join in if he continued. They always did. “I  _ am _ the most like her. Cool. Adventurous. Funny,” he said. The blood was starting to rush to his head, and he slid himself off of the bed and onto the floor in front of Huey. “I’m totally her favorite,” he stated confidently while grinning up at Huey’s irritated expression.

That’s all it took for Huey to snap his laptop shut and turn an angry glare on his brother. “First of all, there’s a difference between  _ thinking  _ you’re cool and actually  _ being  _ cool. Secondly, you’re not just adventurous. You’re reckless. And third, you really aren’t that funny,” Huey argued matter-of-factly. He didn’t actually mean any of it of course, and Dewey knew this, which is why he just continued to grin teasingly at the older triplet.

“Aw, you’re just mad that you’re not mom’s favorite,” he teased more, reaching an arm up to poke at Huey’s face.

Huey huffed in annoyance and swatted his brother’s hand away. “You are not her favorite,” he stated and held a hand to his chest. “I’m the responsible one. I make things easy for Mom. _And_ we share common interests, like Junior Woodchucks and Legends of Legend Quest,” he argued brightly. “Obviously, Mom would have to like me best.”

Dewey jumped to his feet. “So what? Mom and I are practically the same person! And we do lots of cool stuff together all the time! Not lame stuff like you,” Dewey exclaimed, not missing a beat.

“Yeah? Name one cool thing you two do without us.” Huey got to his feet, stepping forward and glaring at his brother.

“Easy!” Dewey blurted out. “Just this week, we went snowboarding down Mount Duckmore.”

“The one with the presidents’ faces? How did you even snowboard down that?!”

“Oh!” Dewey continued, ignoring his brother’s question. “We broke into this abandoned amusement park a few days ago and climbed on a bunch of old rides! The ferris wheel broke though, and we went spinning like, half way across town,” he laughed. “Ooooohh, and yesterday Mom and I played that really awesome graphic fighting game too!” he said excitedly, mimicking the game by punching and kicking the air. “You know, the one that Uncle Donald never let us play.” Dewey nodded proudly, as though this were an accomplishment. “Yep. Mom and I do lots of cool stuff together, like, all the time.”

Huey rolled his eyes, crossing his arms and giving Dewey a pointed look. “So what? Mom and I do fun stuff too.” He held up a finger. “We built a cybernetic robot that could help us track down the locations of ancient artifacts.” Another finger. “We did a mother-son team competition at the annual Junior Woodchucks family picnic.” A third finger. “ _ And  _ we went to Greece last month to study the Palace of Knossos and explore the hidden labyrinth so we could build a replica of it for my history project on ancient mythologies. Shall I go on?” Huey smiled, believing he’d won this argument. 

“Wow. Nerd stuff,” Dewey snorted, laughing. 

Huey fumed. “Mom _ likes _ my ‘nerd stuff,’ Dewey.”

“Sure, sure. But that stuff’s  _ boring  _ compared to what we do,” Dewey said, shrugging confidently. “Just face it, I’m the favorite child, Hubert.”

Huey groaned, stomping his foot. “You are  _ not  _ her favorite, Dewey!” he shouted and turned his head sharply toward the bed, where his youngest brother was still seated. “Louie! Tell him he’s not Mom’s favorite!”

Louie was still seated where he’d been before the pointless argument had started. Only now, he was a bit more curled into himself, with his knees brought to his chest, and his arms wrapped around them. His hood was pulled over his head, and he was staring blankly at the phone in his hands. 

“Louie?” Huey repeated curiously, lowering his voice to a normal level. 

Dewey turned toward him as well, raising an eyebrow questioningly. “Uh, dude? You’re not gonna argue your case?” Usually,  _ all _ of the siblings had some kind of argument for why they’d be the favorite, but the youngest brother hadn’t said anything.

Louie just shrugged, glaring at his phone more intensely now, as though doing so would distract him from the issue at hand. But as much as he tried to pretend he didn’t care, his glassy eyes and shaking hands betrayed him. “What’s the point?” he said quietly, trying to sound angry so it would mask his sadness. “I’m obviously her least favorite….”

“Louie….”

“Why would you say that?” Dewey asked, concerned. 

Louie scowled and wrapped his arms tighter around himself. “Forget it,” he said irritably, hoping they would drop the subject. Of course, he would have no such luck. He knew his brothers wouldn’t just walk away without getting answers.

Huey and Dewey shared a look and then climbed up onto the bed, sitting on either side of Louie. The eldest sibling sighed, looking at his youngest brother sadly. “Lou….why do you think you’re Mom’s least favorite?” he asked softly, trying not to upset his brother further.

Louie just buried his face in his knees, staying silent. 

Dewey looked at him guiltily. “Hey, you know we were just joking around, right? I’m sure Mom doesn’t actually have a favorite.”

Louie let out a shaking breath, as though he were trying to keep himself from crying. “She doesn’t even like me,” he said in a strained voice, so quiet his brothers had almost missed it. He lifted his head, staring blankly ahead with tears threatening to fall from his eyes. “She does all these things with you guys all the time. She’s been back for almost a year now, and we’ve never done anything together, not even once.”

“T-that’s not true,” Huey stuttered, desperate for Louie to be wrong. “What about the time you and Mom tested the money bin’s security systems?”

“That’s different,” Louie sniffled and glared down at the bed. “Uncle Scrooge was there. And he made us do all of this dangerous stuff. It was just another adventure I was forced to go on…..We didn’t have a choice.”

Dewey frowned, looking mildly irritated. “You have to be forgetting something, Louie. Mom wouldn’t just  _ not _ do stuff with you.”

“I think I’d remember if Mom did something with me!” Louie snapped, getting angry that Dewey would even defend her here. It wasn’t like he was surprised though. Dewey clung to Della since the moment she appeared in their lives. And she did  _ so much _ with Dewey and Huey…..why would Dewey believe that she’d be any different toward Louie? “Mom enjoys the things you guys do,” Louie continued. “But all I have going for me are my  _ cockamamie _ schemes…...And she doesn’t like that.” She’d made that pretty clear when she told him he had to  _ stop _ and change who he was if he wanted to be a part of this family…..when she told him that his schemes did nothing but endanger everyone. 

They’d made up since then, and Della had realized that his schemes weren’t  _ all _ bad. Yet, she still hadn’t fully embraced who Louie was, and he knew this. It was evident in the fact that she didn’t want to spend time with him the way she did with his brothers. 

And that hurt. 

It hurt a lot.

Huey thought for a moment. “....Maybe she just doesn’t know what your other interests are,” he said hopefully. “You haven’t exactly asked  _ her _ to do something with you, have you?”

“What if Mom thinks you don’t like  _ her? _ ” Dewey added.

Huey nodded. “Dewey’s right,” he said. “For once.” He leaned forward and put a hand on Louie’s arm in an effort to comfort him. “Maybe you two have just been avoiding each other because you  _ both _ feel this way…...You should talk to her, Louie.”

Louie hesitated. “But she didn’t know how we felt about her when she first showed up,” he argued calmly. “And she still jumped right in and tried to get us to like her…….Why would she not try with me, if she’s just afraid of what I think?.....Am I not worth it?” he asked sadly, lifting his arm to wipe the tears from his eyes with his sleeve.

Huey felt his own tears rise and threaten to spill over. “No, Lou, that’s not it,” he said and leaned into his youngest brother, comfortingly wrapping an arm around his shoulders. “I bet she just doesn’t know how to approach you…..You know….after the whole timephoon incident…” he said, sighing. “She loves you, Lou. She’s probably just….afraid that you’ll hate her if she suggests doing something on our days off. You, uh, aren’t exactly subtle with your desire to stay home and do nothing,” Huey explained, chuckling a bit.

“I guess….” Louie responded quietly. He sat there for a moment, thinking it over. 

Dewey leaned into his other side and elbowed him playfully. “Why don’t you go ask her to do something now?” he suggested cheerfully. “I bet you’ll make her day if you  _ dewey _ that.”

  
Louie groaned at his brother’s lame wordplay. “Alright,  _ fine _ ,” he reluctantly agreed, though he still had his doubts. His brothers both grinned at him, and Louie rolled his eyes, smiling back. He pocketed his phone and scooted off the bed. He wasn’t sure what he and Della could do that they would both enjoy, but it didn’t matter. He just wanted to hang out with her.


End file.
